Signal attachment for telephones



(No Model.) A, D. SUNDEEN, S. B. MOLANDER, G. W. ANDERSON & A. M. GARLS EN.

SIGNAL ATTAGHMENT FOR TELEPHONBS.

No. 454,504. Patented June23, 1891.

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l l l llyl lt l mllllm Ill Illilfllflilllilllllll l 1 H fiw d M 711 6% ATTORNEY STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED D. SUNDEEN, SIVAN B. MOLANDER, AND GUSTAF IV. ANDERSON, OF MORA, AND ANDREW M. CARLSEN, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

SIGNAL ATTACHMENT FO R TELEPHONES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 454,504, dated June 23, 1891.

Application filed June 23, 1890. Serial No. 356,370. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: tion for improvements in telephone-signals,

Be it known that we, ALFRED D. SUNDEEN, bearing even date herewith, we refer to the SWAN B. MOLANDER, and GUSTAF IV. AN- said application for a more minute descrip- DERSON, residing at Mora, in the county of tion and for the claims covering points herein Kanabec, State of Minnesota, and ANDREW shown but not claimed. 5 5

M. OARLSEN, of St. Paul, Ramsey county, State In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is of Minnesota, citizens of the United States, a front elevation of our signal device, shown have invented certain new and useful 1111- without any cover or door. Fig. 2 is an end provements in Signal Attachments for Teleelevation of Fig. 1, with the end wall A the phones; and we do declare the following to dial 1), dial-finger b, and the partition-strip 60 be a full, clear, and exact description of the U removed. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the callinvention, such as will enable others skilled recorder.

in the art to which it appertains to make and Similarletters refertosimilarpartsthroughuse the same, reference being had to the acout the several views.

companying drawings, and to the letters of The back A the four walls A, A, A and 65 reference marked thereon, which form a part A and the partition U constitute the frame of this specification. and case of the instrument.

Our invention relates to attachments for B is a strip secured to the walls A A and telephones, and has for its objects to enable to the partition U. This strip 13 is provided the telephone in the absence of an operator near its lower edge with notches D, corre- 70 or attendant to return to parties ringing up sponding in number with the numerals from the telephone a verbal answer stating at 1 to 12, and the marks it, and the word In, what time the absent operator will return, arranged as shown upon the strip, for the and to give any other information that the purpose of indicating the twelve hours and operator wishes to give through the telephone the fourths of the hours of the clock. The 75 during his absence. said strip B is further provided with the ini- A further object of our invention is to protials of the days of the week and with the duce a telephone-signal that will automatiword In, and has notches E, corresponding cally send a verbal signal or information in number with the number of the days in through the telephone when the latter is rung the Week and the word In after the seven 80 up, and also to serve as a visible signal for days. parties calling in person. Upon the bar F, which is secured by its A still further object is to enable the teleends in the Wall A and the partition U, is phone to make a record of the number of times movably fitted the pointers G and G, which it has been rung up during the absence of the are of so similar construction that the one of 85 operator. them shown in Fig. 2 represents in that View Ve attain these objects by the combination, either of them. Each of the said pointers G with the telephone,of a phonograph through and G has a horn or projection II for taking a mechanism of such construction that the hold of in moving the pointers along upon the ringing up of the telephone starts the phonobar F to set them upon the day and time of 90 graph, and a winding-spring operates and the day desired, thereby pointingout the time automatically stops it. The said mechanism that the person setting the instrument will consists, mainly, of a train of gear-Wheels opreturn to his oflice, or upon the word In for erated by a winding-spring and operating a indicating that he is present in his office.

signal-roller, a rotary fan for regulating the Each of the said hooks G and G is further 5 speed of the instrument, and levers actuated provided at ts lower end with spring I, by springs and by an electro-magnet conthat bears with its lower end aga1nst.the nected in the.cireuit of.the telephone, and as outer side of the bar J, upon which it slides the said mechanism has been fully shown, sidewise when the pointers are moved upon described, and claimed in our other applicathe bar F. Said springs I force the knife- I00 shaped lips K of the pointers G and G into the notches D and E, thereby. adjusting. the pointers more easily to their exact places, which is very important, as the pointers G and G are provided with phonographic needle-points L, which play over diiferent vertically-arran ged lines of speech previously produced upon the surface of the revoluble roller M in the ordinary Way that phonographic rollers are prepared for reproducing speech.v The needle-points L are secured to a vibrating plate located inside of the tube N, all of usual and well-known construction in phonographs. Each of said vibrating plates, when vibrated by the revoluble roller M, will pronounce through the bifurcated flexible tubeO P Q any word previously produced upon the roller M and with which the needle-point is set in contact, and by placing the funnel-shaped part Q of the flexible tube 0 P Q over the" transmitter of the telephone the Words reproduced by the roller will beheard throughthe 1 telephone-line in the same manner that natural speech is heardthrough it. The roller M is secured upon a shaft S, which is jourthe wheel V, the pinion X, the wheel Y, the

pinion Z, and the fan R are all rigidly secured upon their respective shafts, which are j ournaled in the wall A and the partition U. The

said train of gear-wheels is operated by the mainsp'ring a, which is wound up by an ordinary clock-key or crank placed upon the Winding-stem b, formed at theendof the main shaft 0. The ratchet-pawl and ratehet w'h'eel (1 connect the mainspring a and the shaft-c with the wheel T. speed of the gear-wheels. net e is connected by its wires f f in the circuit of the telephone, so that when the telephone is rung up the electric current,

izes it. This causes the magnet to attract the anchor g of the lever h, so that its arm j recally until the telephone is rung up ain, as will be seen by the following description.

The lever 71., when attracted by the magnets, swings on its pivot Z till its pin is engages with the notch in in the lever n, which is pivoted at 0, and is constantly forced upward'to-. ward the pin it by the spring 19. hen the ringing of the telephone ceases, the electric current is broken and the magnet ceases to" hold the lever it away from the fan R, and the spring T will drive the arm j of the lever h To prevent the latter from taking place before into a stopping-contact with the fan R.

the roller M has made one revolution and to .secure just one revolution of it, we-depend on The fan R regulates the- The electro-magthe clock. words we arrange, where so desired, smaller fractions of the hours than fourths'of an hour. passes around the magnet e and magnet- The arrangement the engagement of the pin 7a with the notch m for retaining the lever 12. near the magnet until the pin q, secured in the wheel WV, engages with the free end of the lever n and Y swings the notch m away from the pin 10. This done, the lever h is so far at liberty to swing back and engage with the fan R; but as this. would stop the instrument with the end of the lever n bearing against the pin q, instead of against the pin k, ready to engage with the latter as soon as the lever h is swung toward the magnet by the ringing of the telephone, we let the circular edge of the disk or cam 13 r'esistthe arm to until the pin g has passed the free end of the lever n, when the notch s of the camt receives the end of the arm u, and

position. The arm to, when resting at the edge of the cam t, is shortenough to permit the lever 71. to lean so far. away from the magnet that the notch or cannot re-engage with the pin whenthe lever n swings up against it from its engagement with the pin q, as already described.

The surface of the roller M may be considered as divided by the vertical lines o and 12' into three portions w, w, and y. Upon the portion w we produce on one side of the roller parallel vertically-arranged linesof words, as

indicated by the dotted linesa. The one of those lines that is nearest to the end of the roller contains the words One oclock or I Out till one oclock. The nextline will say f" A quarter past one.

Thethird line will say Half-past one. The fourth line will say A quarter to two, and the next succeeding line will say Two oclock,and so on with all the hours and quarters of the hours shown by Between each of said lines of Upon the portionyof the roller we produce on the opposite side from that containing the time of the clock sevenlines d each of which which may be much larger than shown in the drawings, is reserved for special messages, of j which some may be permanently fixed upon the roller, the same as the days of the week and the time of day, and some may be produced from time to time, according to the wants of the party using the telephone.

Either one of the two'pointers' G' and G may be set so as to register with and pronounce the special message tothe'transmitter of the telephone, the same as: the lines a pronounce the hours and the lines d the days of the week to the telephone.

The call-register or call-indicator consists in the present case of a dial b,'painted or affixed upon the wall A of the case, as shown, in Fig. 1, and still clearer in'Fig. 3. ,c' projects out through a hole in the center of The shaft the said dial b and carries a dialfinger Z2 which has a friction-sleeve d, that holds the dial-finger in its place upon the shaft 0 by frictional contact, thus permitting of the setting of the dial-finger by turning it upon the shaft. The dial b'is provided with numerals and marks so arranged with reference to the gearing that when the roller M makes one revolution the dial-finger moves to the next higher number or mark upon the dial until it reaches the highest number, when its next move will be to 0, 1, 2,6170. The number of signal-marks upon the dial will be smaller or larger, according to the proportion between the wheel T and the pinion V. The present dial is divided for a wheel being twelve times larger than the pinion.

hen the operator is in his office some time during each day in the week he keeps the pointer G set at the word In succeeding the abbreviations of the days in the week, and if he is in his office all day he keeps the pointer G set at the word In succeeding the hours of the day as arranged upon the strip B.

\Vhen the signal device is not needed for some time, we use a common switch (not shown) for turning the electric current off from the magnet e.

In setting the pointers G and G the needle-points L are kept from dragging on the roller M by swinging the pointers away from the roller, so as to clear the ridges between the notches D and E.

From the above description it will be seen that we produce a signal-instrument that may be set so as to automatically send off through the telephone most any message that is desired to send to those calling up the telephone during the absence of its operator, and that our instrument also registers the number of calls made at the telephone, and that by mutual agreement between users of telephones the number of times the telephone is rung up may constitute a signal showing the importance of the call that has been made at the telephone. It is further evident that our signal device is very handy and complete as a visible and legible signal for parties calling in person.

We do not wish to confine ourselves to the exact construction shown in the present illustration of our invention, as it is evident that the principle of our invention may be carried out through various styles of mechanlsms.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim, and wish to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, with a telephone, of a phonograph and an electro-magnet connected in the circuit of the telephone for releasing the phonograph by passing an electric current over the line from other stations, means for conducting the sound of the predetermined speech from the phonograph to the transmitter of the telephone to which the phonograph is attached, and means for stopping the phonographs after it has given the distant station the predetermined information, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with a telephone, of the signal device having a phonographic roller with predetermined speech produced upon it and a train of gear-wheels actuated by a winding-spring for revolving said roller, an electro magnet for releasing said train of wheels, the spring-actuated levers h and n, the lever n having the notch m, the notched cam 13, the fan R, and the pins lo and q for stopping the roller M after each full revolution of it, a vibrating plate vibrated by the roller, and a tube for conducting the soundwaves from the vibrating or sounding plate to the transmitter of the telephone, substantially as and for the purpose described.

3. In a signal-instrument for telephones, the combination of a spring-operated phonograph having a fan for controlling its speed with the stopping and starting mechanism, consisting of the electro-magnet e, the lever 72, having the arinsj and u, the anchor g, the pins in and q, the spring 0, the spring-actuated lever '11, having the notch m, and the cam 23, having the notch s, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In a signal-instrument, the combination of the visible signal device, consisting of the strip B, having the time of the clock and the days of the week marked in straight lines upon it, the bar F, the pointers G and G, sliding upon said bar and having projections engaging with notches in the strip or board B, and springs for holding the pointers in engagement with said notches,with the audible signal device, consisting of a spring-actuated phonograph having a rotary fan for controlling its speed and an electro-magnet for releasing the phonograph by electricity, said audible signal device having also a bifurcated tube for conducting the sound of the phonograph either direct or indirect, through the instru mentality of a telephone, to the ear of the party releasing or starting the instrument, substantially as shown and described.

5. The return-signal device consisting of a board or table having the time of the clock and the days of the week marked in straight lines upon it, and two pointers sliding upon a bar fixed parallel to the line or lines containing the time of the clock and days of the week, said board having notches into which projections of the pointers are held by springs, said pointers having thumb-pieces for taking hold of in moving them along on the bar, substantially as shown, and for the purpose set forth.

6. In a signal-instrument for telephones, the combination of the phonographic roller M and the vibrating plates having the needle-points L with the pointers G and G, the notches D, the strip B, having the hours and fractions of the hours and the days of the week marked upon it, and the bifurcated flexible tube 0 P Q, forconductiug the sound of the Words reproduced to the transmitter of the I In testimony Whereofwe afiix oursignatures telephone, substantially as and for the purin presence of two witnesses. pose specified.

7. In a signal attachment for telephones, g ALFRED D. SUNDEEN. 5 the combination of the herein-described ca-ll- SWAN B. MOLANDER.

registering device with the herein-described GUSTAF W. ANDERSON. phonographic return-signal device operated ANDREXV M. OARLSEN.

by a Winding-spring regulated by a fan and started by an electro-magnet connected in the Witnesses: [O circuit of the telephone, substantially as J. C. POPE,

' shown and described. R. W. SAFFORD. 

